Flash Gordon's amazing adventure

Gordon Shedden beat Matt Neal and Jason Plato to score his first British Touring Car Championship title this year. AUTOSPORT's Kevin Turner looks back at how the drama unfolded

Six years after his first victory in the series, Gordon Shedden can finally call himself the British Touring Car champion. In what was a mixed year for all the major contenders, Shedden used the new Honda Civic's superb chassis to great effect and clinched the title with a race to spare at the Brands Hatch finale.

In the first year of the NGTC regulations taking prominence over the older S2000 machines, the works Honda and MG squads both produced race-winning cars. The championship fight thus boiled down – unsurprisingly – to a fight between Shedden and multiple champions Matt Neal and Jason Plato.